Novell Inc is lining up a summer launch for its new business Linux desktop strategy following its recent acquisitions of Ximian Inc and SuSE Linux AG. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based software and services vendor’s new Linux desktop solution is currently in closed beta testing and will be launched along with a roadmap for Novell’s business desktop strategy this summer.
Novell Plans Summer Launch for Business Linux Desktop
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I really hope this product is nice. Waltham pride.
This will be worth waiting. Interesting to see, what kind of environment Linux will be when backed by some serious money + determination to succeed. And courage to follow the own route instead copying from the others, listen to this:
“It’s not our intention to make the Linux desktop look like the Windows desktop, but it is our intention to make it intuitive and easy to use,” said Green. “If you try to make it look and feel 100% the same, it’s not really achievable and users may not actually want that.”
Oh, the sweet talk… Novell Linux, is sounds so good allready.
Personally, while the desktop aspect is something to watch, I’m more interested in the server aspect of Novell/Linux. I can’t wait to see how Netware and SuSE Enterprise Server meld into one product. Netware as it stands now, is still one of the best file/print servers I’ve ever used. Microsoft’s active directory is now up to where Novell was in the mid 90s with NDS. Their problem was getting 3rd party development on Netware for whatever reasons. NDS on Linux, with desktop tools like nwadmin and 3rd party support sounds like a multi-purpose server setup that microsoft can’t match technically.
That was quick. I was expecting it to be at least the second half of this year, although it does say ‘desktop strategy’. I really can’t see there being anything new in this strategy based on this article though.
“We don’t want to muddy the waters,” Brian Green, Novell’s director of Linux solutions EMEA, told ComputerWire. “We want to go for choice and we want to ensure there are no inhibitors to that choice.”
That sounds exactly like what they are doing now. I can’t see any difference in what he is saying.
While that means businesses will be able to select from Novell’s range of Linux desktop technologies as well as other open source and third-party applications, the company is still working to ensure interoperability between the various components it has at its disposal.
Doesn’t sound all that integrated to me. It seems as though Novell is just going to throw a whole bunch of stuff at people, probably totally confusing them in the process, and they hope this will tell them what people want. Novell has to know exactly what is required from their desktop before they even start (without emotion, stupid religious arguments or non-existent licensing concerns) or they’re dead in the water, in much the same way as Bruce Perens and UserLinux. Without it they’ll return, tail between their legs, back to rolling out Windows and MS Office and buying licenses.
These include its own GroupWise collaboration and productivity applications and the Evolution collaboration application it acquired with Ximian. There will also be enhanced integration with the Red Carpet Enterprise and ZENworks management software for enhanced identity- and policy-based desktop management.
That’s been said before in umpteen interviews and articles over the past few months. I have yet to see any evidence of it. More specifically, I couldn’t see even a hint of it in any Suse Desktop setup I have seen, either in their recent products or at trade shows. I should have seen at least some of it because you can’t just throw that together over a summer.
“It’s not our intention to make the Linux desktop look like the Windows desktop, but it is our intention to make it intuitive and easy to use,” said Green. “If you try to make it look and feel 100% the same, it’s not really achievable and users may not actually want that.”
Well, that just sounds like an oft used statement that Ximian always used to come out with. You have to have a certain amount of Windows-ishness because that is what users are used to. More specifically, there is no point in coming up with a radically different look, feel and functionality if there is really no point in doing things differently. The button ordering in Gnome immediately springs to mind, and ‘users at the coal face’ will just not accept it. Some things just make sense, others much less so. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do things differently where they make sense, but they have to make sense.
While Novell is looking to convert Windows users to its Linux desktop strategy, it is well aware that no company will take desktop migration lightly and is encouraging those expressing interest to think about which areas of their business are most appropriate for Linux.
Right, so I shouldn’t bother looking at it then?
He admitted that general knowledge workers are unlikely to move to Linux in the near future…
Who are general knowledge workers?
…but maintained that there is a large amount of interest in the potential cost and flexibility advantages.
I’m sure there is, and I’m sure there will be more, but when all is said and done it has to get the job done.
Green also admitted that there are situations where a specific document, such as a financial planning spreadsheet originally formatted in Microsoft Office, will make it very difficult for a Linux user to view documents in Linux applications.
Then you give them a plan to put into action to move away from Microsoft Office wholesale. It is Microsoft that has created that situation, no one else, and the solution must be equally as hard. That is what is going to be required in places like Munich.
For that the company proposes three choices: porting the application to OpenOffice.org macro language, which might work fine internally but cause problems when exchanging documents outside the company; using virtualization or server-based computing technologies;
They need to give clear direction and examples for that, but it is doable. Much of the logic of what is in Office macros and scripts could be centralized.
…and using open source Wine project technologies that enable Microsoft applications to run on the Linux and Unix operating systems.
That’s not an option because it is extremely short-term. Sooner or later you’ll come up against problems.
Novell, as a group, have a lot at their disposal. It is realizing what is of value and working on it that is the big barrier, without the pressure of stupid, bone-headed arguments from certain individuals. I hope they don’t screw it up.
“Their problem was getting 3rd party development on Netware for whatever reasons.”
I am very interested to see Novell come back. The biggest reason for your statement above is that Netware did not natively support TCP/IP until version 4 I believe. By that time Windows NT 4 had already started to take over since it did have native support for it, and Novell’s IPX/SPX could not be routed over the internet. IMHO that is what slowed the growth down.
I’m gonna take a shot in the dark, but this will likely be Suse with Ximian Gnome? I don’t think they’ve made a revolution in the last few months, but it may be a nice system. Hopefully something good to recommend to Newbs who have money to spend.
I’m quite excited about the talent behind it too.
Would be nice if the link worked thought.
http://www.computerwire.co.uk/brnews/53E74E5D9111E9E580256EB300569D…
You didn’t go to Minuteman, did you?
I thought Novell was Utah-based, like SCO? Can someone explain, please?